Medical

Welcome to the life of a junior doctor: 97-hour weeks, life-and-death decisions, a constant tsunami of bodily fluids and the hospital parking meter earns more than you. Adam Kay's This Is Going to Hurt provides a no-holds-barred account of his time on the NHS front line....

The heart-wrenchingly honest new book about life and death from forensic pathologist and best-selling author of Unnatural Causes, Dr Richard Shepherd....

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...but 1.4 million NHS workers are heading off to work....

Having worked in the emergency services for more than 15 years, Dan Farnworth has seen it all. There was the time he was called to take away a dead body - only for the 'corpse' to jolt back into life and demand to know what he was doing in her house....

Fresh out of Glasgow Veterinary College, to the young James Herriot 1930s Yorkshire seems to offer an idyllic pocket of rural life in a rapidly changing world....

A gripping investigation into an extraordinary medical phenomenon from the prize-winning author of It’s Not All In Your Head....

In this unprecedented memoir, a palliative medicine pioneer explores the biggest taboo in our society and the only certainty we all share: death....

The second volume of memoirs from the author who inspired the BBC series All Creatures Great and Small....

From the best-selling author of With the End in Mind, this is a book about the conversations that matter and how to have them better - more honestly, more confidently and without regret....

This is a story of women in crisis, seen through the eyes of a remarkable midwife....

Danny Baker is a national treasure with a well-documented and colourful life. For over a quarter of a century, he has amused and entertained audiences on both radio and television....

Are you ready, Max? If anyone's going to help me do this, it's you. The heart-warming tale of a life-saving friendship....

In No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality, Michael shares personal stories and observations about illness and health, ageing, the strength of family and friends, and how our perceptions about time affect the way we approach mortality....

The highs and lows of being a vet in the Yorkshire Dales are perfectly captured in James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small which contains If Only They Could Talk and It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet....

Decorated Navy SEAL Lieutenant Jason Redman served his country courageously and with distinction in Columbia, Peru, Afghanistan, and Iraq, where he commanded mobility and assault forces....

Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the air force brought them to Colorado, where their 12 children perfectly spanned the baby boom.... 

Horrifying, heartbreaking and eye-opening, these are the stories, the patients and the cases that have characterised a career spent behind bars....

Adam Kay's secret diary from his time as a junior doctor This is Going to Hurt was the publishing phenomenon of the century. It has been read by millions, translated into 37 languages, and adapted into a major BBC television series. But that was only part of the story.... 

If you're going to be ill, it's best to avoid the first Wednesday in August. This is the day when junior doctors graduate to their first placements and begin to face having to put into practice what they have spent the last six years learning....

Join Colin Black on his journey from accidental medical student to HSE and NHS trainee and, finally, consultant paediatric anaesthetist at the largest children’s hospital in Ireland, where any given day could end in laughter or tears - and that’s just the staff....

Based on the diaries of intensive care nurse Anthea Allen, who worked on the front line of one of the largest hospitals in Europe - St George’s in South London - during the peak of the COVID crisis, Life, Death and Biscuits is an extraordinarily powerful memoir....

From the author of the critically acclaimed memoir The Boy on the Shed comes a powerful tale of grit and resilience, told with great humour, openness and profound bravery....

A Life in Trauma is a frank, remarkable account of a career spent helping others, offering a positive outlook on the potential of Ireland’s healthcare system in the future....

Doctor Ben MacFarlane flies around the world picking up the pieces when Britons get into trouble abroad. A must-listen for anyone who enjoys real-life stories....

Christie Watson was a nurse for 20 years. Taking us from birth to death and from A&E to the mortuary, The Language of Kindness is an astonishing account of a profession defined by acts of care, compassion and kindness....

In the multibillion-dollar business of American medicine, doctors are often portrayed as culprits—opportunistic millionaires who prey on the misfortune of their hapless patients and drive up the cost of health care. But often they are the real victims of a system designed to increase profits for the insurance companies, shady businessmen, and Big Government. 

In this inspiring book, Dr. Rolle tells the story of his incredible journey, revealing how a strong work ethic, deep faith, and the family values instilled by his Bahamian immigrant parents set the stage for the transformative life philosophy that enabled him to overcome adversity, defy expectations, and create a life of meaning and purpose.

Anna Kent has delivered babies in war zones, caring for the most vulnerable women in the most vulnerable places in the world. At 26 years old, not yet a fully trained midwife, she delivered a baby in a tropical storm by the light of a headtorch; the following year, she would be responsible for the female health of 30,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. But returning to the UK to work for the NHS, she soon learned that even at home the right to a safe birth was impossible to take for granted.

Just when life seemed rosy and the sun was shining, Dr. Bhaskar Bora sustained a severe spinal cord injury in July 2019 following an operation, which left him with paralysis of both legs, a nonfunctioning right hand, and a long stay in the hospital, eventually leading to a forced medical retirement from his medical career and a wheelchair in place of a sports car. Poorer financially but richer in experiences of life, he is now a voice for the disabled and has written the book The Second Chance in Life as an honest reflection of his life experiences.

These heartwarming and inspiring stories by brave women and men who have survived breast cancer are a must-listen for anyone personally or indirectly afflicted by the disease. How We Beat Breast Cancer brings together the experiences, thoughts, struggles, and victories of unique women and men from all walks of life, who tell the stories of their battles with breast cancer. Their narratives portray both the good and the bad in a real, candid language, sharing everything from diagnosis, through treatment, to life with and after cancer.

Helena Rho was six years old when her family left Seoul, Korea, for America and its opportunities. Years later, her Korean-ness behind her, Helena had everything a model minority was supposed to want: she was married to a white American doctor and had a beautiful home, two children, and a career as an assistant professor of pediatrics. For decades she fulfilled the expectations of others. All the while Helena kept silent about the traumas - both professional and personal - that left her anxious yet determined to escape.

“Ten years after a car accident paralyzed my legs, a pressure sore infection escalated into a life-or-death scenario requiring emergency surgery, followed by an extended recovery in a nursing home. For weeks, I was confined to a special medical bed, where I was not allowed to sit up, but required to remain on my back 24/7. This is the story of my search for peace and sanity during that claustrophobic confinement, which subsequently led to a deeper understanding and alignment of my internal, eternal well-being". (Author Ashley Lyn Olson).

Former Newcastle United winger Paul Ferris was 51. He had successfully forged a post-football career as a physio, barrister and then a CEO, and his award-winning memoir, The Boy on the Shed, was just about to be published. But then he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. This honest, sometimes brutal and frequently funny book tells the story of what happened next.

Just after COVID arrived in North America, journalist Helen Epstein was diagnosed with endometrial cancer—one of a predicted 66,570 new cases of cancer of the uterine body in the United States in 2021. About 600,000 American women have had it. A candid and eye-opening account of a medical steeplechase of surgery, chemo, and radiation therapy, Getting Through It brings together reporting, research, and elements of memoir to tell an important story. A guide for other women, their caregivers, and their families.

As a nurse for nearly 50 years, Keith Cox provided expert care and comfort to countless people facing the unimaginable. With insight and sensitivity, A Caring Life takes us behind the scenes of his remarkable nursing career and the moving stories of hope, determination and loss that underpinned it. Along the way, he shares lessons gained from a career spent confronting mortality, from finding joy in difficult circumstances to understanding that true strength comes in thinking of others and being part of a community.

As the effects of the war raging in Europe begins to be felt at home in London, Monica Dickens decides to do her bit and to pursue a new career and so enrols as a student nurse at a hospital. By nature clever and spirited, she struggles to submit to the iron rule of the Matron and Sisters and is alternately infuriated and charmed by her patients. That's not to mention the mountains of menial work that are a trainee's lot. But there are friends among the staff and patients, night-time escapades to dances with dashing army men and her secret writing project to keep her going.

Heart disease is the number-one killer in the world. Despite ever-advancing medical procedures and more powerful pharmaceutical drugs, the rate of heart disease continues to rise. According to Dr. Stephen Hussey, this is due in part to misunderstandings about how the heart really functions and how to keep it healthy. These misunderstandings result in improper medical approaches and off-target intervention therapies. 

An impassioned veteran embarks back in time on a long-suffering military experience and the unexpected transition thereafter through the eyes of a meek and humble woman. She must come to embrace the life she now lives in sickness and health in remarkable ways through everything surrounding her. By the time it came for her to have a military medical evaluation, she really wasn’t feeling up to it, given the extent of how she felt that entire month. After the doctors did their evaluation and sent off the report, she waited for the final decision.

In The Song of Our Scars, physician Haider Warraich offers a bold reexamination of the nature of pain, not as a simple physical sensation, but as a cultural experience. Warraich, himself a sufferer of chronic pain, considers the ways our notions of pain have been shaped not just by science but by politics and power, by whose suffering mattered and whose didn’t. 

This is the inspiring, heartwarming story of a mother and daughter’s 50-year journey through the world of cystic fibrosis. Leslie’s medical prognosis was that she wouldn’t live to be seven. Although people with gene-based diseases don’t have spontaneous remissions, Leslie had one. And, despite the odds, she lived a fully functioning life to the age of 50.